Budget supermarket Lidl has renewed its quest to come to Nailsea and is offering a cash reward to anyone who can find them a site.

The discount retailer announced this week it wants to double its portfolio across the country and Nailsea is on the list for a new store.

And at Clevedon Lidl wants to relocate to a different site in the seaside town where many Nailsea shoppers go to buy their groceries.

The last serious attempt by Lidl to come to Nailsea was in 2014-15.

Then it put in a planning application to build in the car park belonging to the town centre property investors Praxis.

Its plans attracted scores of objections as people were desperate to keep free parking spaces.

But many residents said they were keen to have a Lidl at a different site.

A dedicated Facebook page called ‘Nailsea Lidl - yes to store, no to location’ says: 'We are not against Lidl, or any other discounter, setting up in Nailsea, we are only against the proposed location and its impact on the usability and accessibility of the town centre'.

Past suggestions or rumours have been Blackfriars industrial estate, scouts HQ at Clevedon Road and the Weston College site at Somerset Square.

Lidl said it will pay a finder’s fee to anyone that identifies a suitable site for a new store

The fee is either 1.5 per cent of the total freehold purchase price or 10 per cent of first year’s rent for leaseholds, which would equate to £22,500 for a completed £1.5m site purchase.

Lidl invested £1.3 billion in its expansion during 2021-22 and wants to have 1,100 stores nationwide by the end of 2025.

In April 2022 it became the sixth largest supermarket in the UK behind Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons and Aldi.

Lidl GB chief development officer Richard Taylor said: “We know that the majority of British shoppers still love doing their shopping in person and we are as committed as ever to opening new stores and enhancing our existing ones.

“We’re opening an average of one new store a week, which is incredible, and our teams have done a phenomenal job of keeping that pace going over the last couple of years.

“But there are still communities up and down the country that are telling us how much they want – and need - a Lidl store.

“We work with some of the best people in the industry to identify new sites, but we also know how engaged our future and existing customers are and we want to build on this.

“Our finder’s fees are, therefore, available to absolutely anyone that can identify a viable option for a new store that we’re not already aware of, and we welcome any suitable suggestions that will help up us to meet our ambitious target of 1,100 stores by the end of 2025.”  

Members of the public who know of potential sites are encouraged to check details against Lidl’s site requirements and contact its property team with further details.

More information can be found here: www.lidl.co.uk/about-us/property

Site requirements: 

• Prominent locations with easy access and strong pedestrian or traffic flow

• Freehold, leasehold or long leasehold opportunities

• Unit sizes between 18,000 and 26,500 sq ft and 100+ dedicated car parking spaces. Waitrose Nailsea is on a 43,000 sq ft site

• 1.5+ acres for standalone stores or up to 4 acres for mixed-use schemes

• Town centre or edge of centre and retail parks

RE-ELECTED COUNCILLORS

Councillor Mike Bird who was recently re-elected of second term remarked in this annual report about another strange ‘Covid’ year adding he was first elected via a Zoom meeting. In response to criticism on social media he said his tenure as a district councillor was an advantage as it gave him easier access to North Somerset Council officers. He indefatigably disputed it was a conflict of interest – rather the opposite. He said: “My focus is always Nailsea.” BBC producer Emily Miller was re-elected as vice chairman for the second year.

• A report on the annual town meeting on Wednesday, May 11, in on our Political Peeps page HERE

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NATIONAL GRID NEWSLETTER

In Nailsea, an £18,000 grant from National Grid's Community Grant Fund helped Ravenswood School to create a new sensory room. The Discovery Room, as its known, is now a state-of-the-art, interactive sensory room that provides a stimulating educational environment for their pupils and the wider community. Read the NG's latest news HERE

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RECYCLING HUB

Nailsea Community Recycling Hub at 26 Somerset Square has broaden items it can take. Currently it has bins for:

• glasses (not cases)

• contact lenses and packaging

• pens

• felt tips

• highlighters

• correcting fluid

• BRITA water filters

• plastic toothbrushes

• toothpaste tubes

• empty medicine blister packs

• Pringle tubes

• British and foreign stamps

• foreign coins (and notes) including obsolete currency

• old and broken jewellery.